This invention relates to environmental sampling, process sampling, and air cleaning.
There are numerous applications for this invention. In combination with a detection system, it can be used to monitor the atmosphere for both particulate and chemical pollutants. Since very small amounts of a material in a gas can be concentrated by passing a large volume of the gas through the inventive apparatus, explosives and narcotics can be detected in a room even after they have been removed from the room. Virtually every solid material has a vapor pressure, that is, has molecules of the material present in the form of a vapor in the atmosphere adjacent to the solid material. These molecules are collected by means of the invention. The inventive apparatus can be used to monitor a smokestack: a small portion of the stack gas can be passed through the apparatus, where sulfur oxides can be removed from the gas by means of a liquid such as sodium hydroxide. Continuous analysis of the liquid then provides an indication of the amount of sulfur oxides discharged to the atmosphere by the stack. Other applications of the invention include automobile emissions, atmospheric pollen counts and other micro-organisms in the atmosphere, below ground mine atmospheres, and monitoring gases exhaled by humans, such as the amount of an anesthetic gas in a persons exhalations.
In addition to the above applications, which may be categorized as sampling applications, the invention is useful in cleaning gases, that is removing a contaminant material from a gas. For example, the exhaust from a laboratory hood may be passed through the inventive apparatus in order to remove a material which should not be discharged into the atmosphere.